Prof. Peter Alegi recently traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to attend the 13th Sports Africa conference. The theme of the conference was “Popular Sports, Mass Sports and Elite Sports in Everyday Africa.” Alegi presented a paper on “The New Historiography of Southern African Football” and also chaired a panel on weightlifting, soccer, and mountaineering in 20th-century South Africa.
Participants hailed from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, France, and the U.S. The keynote address was given by Astou B. N’diaye, Associate Technical Director at NBA Academy Africa, and a former Olympian, WNBA Champion (with Detroit Shock) and 3-time African champion with Senegal.
The West African Research Center hosted the event on June 20-22, 2019. Institutional sponsors included: the History Department at Université Cheikh Anta Diop, the Consortium for Research and Social Economy (CRES), the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (South Africa), and the Center for International Studies at Ohio University.